Genesis 34:1

Ver. 1 And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob,.... Who is supposed to be at this time about fourteen or fifteen years of age: for that she was but about nine or ten years old is

And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. Though freed from foreign troubles, Jacob met with a great domestic calamity in the fall of his only recorded daughter.

GENESIS CHAPTER 34 Dinah going forth to see the daughters of the country, is abused and defiled by Shechem, son of Hamor, ,2; who loves her, ; desires to marry her, . Jacob hears it, . Hamor treats with Jacob and his sons, . They answered him deceitfullly, making a condition that all the males of the Shechemites should be circumcised, . They and their citizens consent to it, ; are circumcised, and, when sore, surprised and murdered by Simeon and Levi; the city is plundered by Jacob’ s sons; the women and children are carried away captive, . Jacob is exceedingly troubled and afraid, . They justify themselves, . cir. 1732 From her father’ s house into the city, out of curiosity, there being then, as Josephus reports, a great concourse of people to a feast. Thus she put herself out of her father’ s protection, and merely out of a vain humour exposed both herself and others to temptation; which was the worse, because it was amongst them that had no fear of God to restrain them from the most enormous crimes. She was now fourteen or fifteen years old.

Genesis 34:1 And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.Ver. 1. Went out to see the daughters of the land.] Who went abroad at this time, with timbrels, to play, say the Hebrews; kept a solemn feast, saith Josephus. Hence Dinah’ s desire to see them. But what saith St Bernard? Si tu otiose spectas, otiose non spectaris: tu curiose spectas, sed curiosius spectaris. Dinah’ s wanton gadding, and gazing on others, gave occasion to the adulterer to look and lust after her. See the fruit of her needless getting abroad to see fashions and novelties. The name of a virgin, in the original tongues, is derived from the house hiding; shadow; locked treasure; apple of the eye: to teach them to refrain ill company, and idle gadding. Young women are taught "to be keepers at home". As when they come abroad among men, they must be, if not veiled, as at Venice, yet clothed, and in their right minds, as that demoniac in Luke 8:35. And this not only in winter, that they take no cold; but in the summer, that others take no heat from them, - which may rather burn them, than warm them, - as Shechem here did. αϊεμϊ; of αϊ a house; ςμξδ; of ςμν to hide; θμιϊΰ; of θμμ to shadow. Pαρθενος; of παραθειναι, to lay up. Kορη, a virgin, and the apple of thc eye.

XXXIV.(1) Dinah . . . went out to see the daughters of the land.—Those commentators who imagine that Jacob sojourned only twenty years at Haran are obliged to suppose that he remained two or more years at Succoth, and some eight years at Shechem, before this event happened, leaving only one more year for the interval between Dinah’s dishonour and the sale of Joseph to the Ishmaelites. But even so, if Dinah was now not more than fourteen, there would be left a period of only nine years, in which Leah has to bear six sons and a daughter, with a long interval of barrenness, during which Zilpah was given to Jacob and bears two sons. But besides this impossibility, Jacob evidently remained at Succoth only until he was shalem, sound and whole from his sprain, and Dinah’s visit was one of curiosity, for she went “to see the daughters of the land,” that is, she wanted, as Abravanel says, to see what the native women were like, and how they dressed themselves. Josephus says that she took the opportunity of a festival at Shechem; but as neither her father nor brothers knew of her going, but were with their cattle as usual, it is probable that with one or two women only she slipped away from her father’s camp and paid the penalty of her girlish curiosity. But she would feel no such curiosity after being a year or two at Shechem, so that it is probable that her dishonour took place within a few weeks after Jacob’s arrival there. So, too, Hamor’s words in Genesis 34:21-22 plainly show that Jacob was a new comer; for he proposes that the people should “let them dwell in the land,” and therefore consent to the condition required by them that the Hivites should be circumcised. It would have been absurd thus to speak if Jacob had already dwelt there eight years with no apparent intention of going away.

CHAPTER XXXIV. Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, going out to see the daughters of the land, is ravished by Shechem, the son of Hamor, 1, 2. He entreats his father to get her for him to wife, 3. Jacob and his sons hear of the indignity offered to Dinah, 5-7. Hamor proposes the suit of Shechem to Jacob and his sons, and offers them a variety of advantages, 8-10. Shechem himself comes forward, begs to have Dinah to wife, and offers dowry to any extent, 11, 12. The sons of Jacob pretend scruples of conscience to give their sister to one who was uncircumcised; and require, as a condition of this marriage, and of intermarriages in general, that all the Shechemites should be circumcised, 13-17. Hamor and Shechem consent, 18, 19. They lay the business before the elders of their city, dwell on the advantages of a connection with Jacob and his family, and propose to them the condition required by the sons of Jacob, 20-23. The elders consent, and all the males are circumcised, 24. While the Shechemites are incapable of defending themselves, on the third day after their circumcision, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, came upon the city, slew all the males, sacked the city, took the women and children captives, and seized on all the cattle belonging to the Shechemites, 25-29. Jacob is greatly displeased and alarmed at this treachery and cruelty of his sons, and lays before them the probable consequences, 30. They endeavour to vindicate their conduct, 31. NOTES ON CHAP. XXXIV Verse 1. And Dinah - went out to see the daughters of the land.] It is supposed that Jacob had been now about seven or eight years in the land, and that Dinah, who was about seven years of age when Jacob came to Canaan, was now about fourteen or fifteen. Why or on what occasion she went out we know not, but the reason given by Josephus is very probable, viz., that it was on one of their festivals.

1. Dinah] See Genesis 30:21, Genesis 31:41, from which passages the age of Dinah at the time of Jacob’s flight from Haran may be computed. She was nearly the last of Jacob’s children born in Haran.

- Dinah’s Dishonor This chapter records the rape of Dinah and the revenge of her brothers. Genesis 34:1-5 Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land.

1. Dinah — Now grown to be a blooming girl of twelve or fourteen years.